ClostraBio Gains INVENT Illinois Investment, Appoints New CSO, Announces Plans for First Product Launch in Summer 2025

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ClostraBio, Inc., a biotechnology company focused on harnessing natural pathways to manage gut health, recently announced new institutional investors in their latest bridge financing round that includes capital from the Illinois Innovation Venture Fund (INVENT) and NextGen Nutrition Investment Partners (NGN). The INVENT program, administered by the Office of Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Technology at Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), is dedicated to supporting startups in the state.

“We are proud to support the innovative spirit and growing biotechnology sector in Illinois. By investing in companies like ClostraBio through the Illinois Innovation Venture Fund, we are strengthening the state’s position as a leader in biotechnology and entrepreneurship. The continued growth of our startup ecosystem, fueled by initiatives like INVENT, demonstrates our commitment to fostering an economic environment where companies can grow and thrive,” said Illinois DCEO Director Kristin Richards.

NGN invests in early-stage companies committed to technologies and products that offer disruption to the global food industry. NGN has a team of deeply experienced industry executives who partner with founders, investors, functional experts & strategic stakeholders to maximize the full potential of each business. NGN partner Andrew Towle said, “It is increasingly clear that gut health is vital to overall health and that butyrate production is one of the most important contributing factors. We are convinced that ClostraBio’s unique technologies will really help people afflicted with a host of gut health issues.”

ClostraBio has also appointed a new Chief Scientific Officer, Brian Meehan, PhD. Following a PhD in Microbiology at Tufts University, Meehan completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and has since been in biotech for more than 8 years, recently leading gut microbiome product development at Kaleido Biosciences and Pareto Bio.

Meehan will work closely with the ClostraBio team to help launch the first CLB101™-based product this summer, by partnering with U.S.-based dietary supplement companies that market directly to healthcare practitioners who understand the importance of butyrate. As a first-in-class, next-generation probiotic isolated from healthy humans, CLB101™ has demonstrated preclinical potential to mimic key elements of a healthy microbiome by providing direct, continuous production of butyrate in the lower gut.

ClostraBio was spun out of the University of Chicago in 2016 and has since grown to 5 full-time employees and multiple fractional consultants while working out of Portal Innovations. The University of Chicago has played a critical role in supporting biotechnology startups and has contributed immensely to ClostraBio’s development.

“Built on groundbreaking research from the University of Chicago, ClostraBio is making incredible strides in microbiome innovation. Supported by the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the company in 2017 secured investment from the George Shultz Innovation Fund and was a finalist in the New Venture Challenge,” said Samir Mayekar, Managing Director of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. “As ClostraBio prepares to launch its product later this year, we’re eager to see its continued growth and the impact it will make in the microbiome field.”

ClostraBio plans to launch its CLB101™ probiotic under its commercial partner’s currently undisclosed brand name(s). The company will continue to grow in Chicago in order to expand its pipeline to address the high unmet need caused by microbiome-related gut health challenges.

About ClostraBio: ClostraBio is leveraging a science-driven, multi-pronged approach to address conditions of the lower gut, using novel biotechnology to harness natural pathways. The Company is developing a next-generation probiotic that produces butyrate in the lower gut to impact intestinal barrier function and promote gut health, as well as a novel polymeric prodrug platform designed to deliver small molecules to the lower gut. ClostraBio was spun out of the University of Chicago and is incubated at Portal Innovations.

About NextGen Nutrition Investment Partners: NGN invests in Technologies and Products that offer Disruptive Superior Nutrition to the Global Food Industry, focusing on food technology, functionally superior ingredients, and healthy branded products. Partners Jim Cali and Andrew Towle are experienced executives with over 60 years of managerial and operational experience in the food industry at firms like Kraft/Mondelez, Kellogg's, P&G, Heinz, and Cadbury's. We are widely regarded as knowledgeable operating partners that understand the fundamentals of operating food & beverage companies both in the U.S. and internationally, and the requirements needed to help young companies bring their products to the next level in the market. https://www.ngn-ip.com